My First Half of 2012

It has been an interesting 6 months so far in 2012. My original plan was to stay somewhat still, but something went wrong along the way to say the least. First though, I was totally grounded for the entire month of January. The traveling didn’t start before the beginning of February, but somehow I managed to rack up close to 116K flown miles so far this year.

Countries Visited 20

The counties visited, not just transferred, so far this year are United Kingdom, Japan, China, Thailand, New Zealand, Fiji, Western Samoa, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, UAE, Hong Kong, Macau, Sri Lanka, Italy, Vietnam, Philippines, Qatar, and Australia. I had been to all of these before except Fiji and Western Samoa. The number of counties that I have been so far is around 70.

Both Fiji and Western Samoa were interesting. I didn’t care too much about the tourist ghetto that the Denarau in Fiji is, but once you go further out to Natadola Bay and to the capitol of Suva, the situation completely changed. Suva was a bustling and interesting city. Obviously Apia, the capital of Western Samoa, was nowhere near as busy as Suva, but it was equally interesting place. The smaller the island the more hospitable the people tend to be.

The number of segments flown was 54. The shortest one was from Helsinki to Stockholm on Blue1 in economy (award) 249 miles and the longest one from Dubai to Melbourne in first class (paid) on Emirates 7231 miles. This goes to against what I normally preach; redeem for business/first and pay for economy. But there are always exceptions to the rule.

Hotels Stayed At

This year I have somewhat unusual mix of hotels. Last year I had qualified for the Hyatt Diamond by the end of February, but in 2012 I have had only one paid Hyatt stay so for. For the first time ever, I requalified for the Hilton HHonors Diamond status first. This was partly due to free night certificates from a last year’s promo that I have used this past spring.

The number of Starwood stays is down significantly as well, although I have almost requalified for the Platinum status. I won’t, however, have nowhere near as many stays this year than I had in 2011 (around 110) or 2010 (around 130).

I have never quite understood Accor’s brand and decided to familiarize myself with them. Stayed at the Muse MGallery collection hotel in Bangkok (very good), Mercure Nadi (terrible), Novotel Suva Lami Bay (good) & Pullman Legian in Bali (good). I have to say that I am continuing to be confused. Not quite sure what to expect. Maybe I need to have few more Accorhotel stays later in the year as well.

Carlson Hotels

Only had two stays with the Carlson hotels in the first half. Somewhat unsatisfactory stay at the Radisson Blu Denarau resort in Fiji and an acceptable stay at the Radisson Suites in Bangkok.

The first six months of 2012 was quite a ride after all. The 3rd quarter of 2012 looks equally busy, and I am very excited to visit both the Easter Islands and French Polynesia for the very first time.

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virtualbenz

Crikey John, you must be permanently jet lagged! Am curious as to how many passports you get through in a year? Love the blog and frank reviews, as well as the tips on all the hotel and airline deals. We are looking at a trip to Tahiti next year so very interested to hear how you find French Polynesia.
Cheers Ben